


careful as I write her name on the corner of the page

by Kelleesi



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cady Heron!Arya, F/M, Fluff, Gendrya: Nerd Edition, Light-Hearted, Maeve!Gendry, POV Arya Stark, Rated T because I can't stop swearing, yes it’s a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26294056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kelleesi/pseuds/Kelleesi
Summary: She knew it wasn’t anything special. He did it for tons of people. For all subjects, it seemed. Well, good for him. She wasn’t one to fault anyone for showing a little hustle.Plus, it reaffirmed that he was smart.She liked that.Not that it mattered, because she didn’t mean anything to him. But still.ORA very flustered and confused Arya Stark ends up paying the new kid to do her homework that she could easily have done herself
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Comments: 55
Kudos: 193
Collections: Still Rowing: A Gendrya Centric Fanfic Collection





	careful as I write her name on the corner of the page

**Author's Note:**

> This is absolutely silly and the plot is non-existent so if that's not your jam click away ha ha you've been warned
> 
> It is inspired in 3 parts, #1 being Maeve from Sex Education getting kids to pay her for doing their assignments (Gendry doing this first brought to my brain by the lovely yanak324), #2 is the iconic Cady Heron trying to woo a man by pretending to be bad at math, and #3 is the song Annabelle's Homework which actually doesn't really have good vibes but who cares :))
> 
> It's also not what I told myself I would work on but what can you do! In other news I have never written a one-shot and I thought I never would so... that's all!
> 
> Enjoy xoxoxoxox

Arya Stark had never paid much attention to boys. Well - not any more than she would anyone else. That is to say, she did have brothers. It’s not like she ignored them. She was friends with boys, too, which was, for the most part, pain-free. (Although she _knew_ that Mycah had a crush on her, but dealing with that whole thing really just seemed like more trouble than it was worth, so she was pointedly ignoring it.)

Things like crushes and dating seemed to lead to nothing good, as far as she could see, and she just didn’t have the time for it. She had just made the Senior Varsity soccer team, she was taking AP Calculus, she had tons of friends -

She just had other priorities. She liked to consider that she had her head on straight, that was all.

And nothing was going to change that. 

Not until Gendry Waters.

Gendry Waters was new. He was a year above her, and she knew he must be smart to be in AP calc with her. He seemed a bit quiet, too. Mysterious, perhaps. And he was -

Okay, she didn’t consider herself shallow, or anything, but -

Gendry Waters was hot. There wasn’t really any other word she could think of to describe him, or to describe the way her stomach felt like it dropped out of her body when he walked into the room for their first class. ‘Hot’ didn’t really seem like it packed enough punch, but -

It was the best she could do. Having not really paid much attention to boys before, she wasn’t practiced at describing them in such a way.

***

She knew she was in trouble, though, as soon as he walked in. His eyes met hers for just a second, before he dropped into the seat to her right, and she felt heat flood her face while something that could have been a mild heart attack occurred in her chest. She desperately tried to ignore all of these inconveniences, and focus on the class material.

Because, really, she didn’t care about boys. (No matter how hot they were.) She didn’t have the time, and also, in case she hadn’t mentioned it, she _didn’t_ care. 

***

All Arya wanted to do was ignore Gendry Waters, and for the first month of term, she tried her very best. He _always_ sat on her right, though, which she blames for most of her failings. It was harder to ignore him when she could smell him, sometimes, or hear him breathe, or easily sneak glances at him while pretending to be checking the clock. (These might seem minor, but really, they made her life much more difficult than she could remember it being before.)

Her reactions seemed to be getting worse, though. She hadn’t thought anything could be worse than her heart attack on the first day of class, but the feeling had only intensified the first time she heard him speak (of course his voice would be like that, deep and kind of grumpy and somehow perfect). She found herself thinking about him, sometimes, wondering if he noticed the skirt she wore or the way she’d braided her hair. One night she actually had a _dream_ which was just so utterly mortifying in itself that she’d really rather not get into it -

But she couldn’t stop noticing him.

Noticing things about him, that she didn’t need to share with anyone. Nobody needed to know she was even watching him at all. It was just for her. (Just because she couldn’t stop herself, really. She would have, if she could.)

She noticed that he wore the same scuffed up pair of boots every day. She wondered if he had multiples of the exact same pair because they were the only kind he liked, that fit him properly, maybe, or if he was one of those ‘minimalist’ types and all he owned was the one pair, or if maybe the boots were of no significance at all and she was just a complete stalker -

(She had to admit that this seemed the most likely.)

She also noticed that he was good at math. She’d figured he must be, but it was nice to know for sure. She’d seen (just by chance, okay, she wasn’t _that_ much of a creep) that he’d gotten a 96 on their last assignment, and while she herself had gotten a 98, she was still pretty impressed. She didn’t expect anyone to be as good at math as she was, so. The fact that he even came close thrilled her in a way that she kept very firmly to herself.

She’d also noticed that he was kind of a complete and utter dick. This last factor was hard to miss, and she was certain that she wasn’t the only one who had come to this conclusion. He was scowling more often than not, and anytime he was forced to speak he seemed to spit out the words as if they caused him physical pain. 

Arya found it oddly satisfying to watch the senior girls attempt to talk to him, all swaying hips and tossing hair and fluttering eyelashes, only to be met with a frown and, on a good day, a curt, one-word response.

(She was sure that, should she attempt to speak with him, she would be met with the same treatment. Somehow, this didn’t lessen her satisfaction in the least. In all honesty, she really thought she ought to be more put off by his demeanour than she was. Maybe she was kind of shallow, after all. He was _really_ hot.)

***

She didn’t know what got into her.

She had completely lost her mind, obviously. Because hadn’t she already determined, on the very first day, that she would ignore Gendry Waters’ entire existence? And hadn’t _he_ made it very clear that he wasn’t interested in getting to know anyone in any capacity whatsoever?

Something had gone terribly wrong, though, because it was getting colder out and he’d come in wearing a leather jacket and some cursed part of her stomach had jerked and flipped over at the sight -

Why? Why did she have to be like this?

The part of her brain that contained logic and rational thought had left her, though, when the bell rang, and he grabbed his godsdamned jacket, and all of a sudden she was racing after him -

“Gendry?”

Her voice came out way too soft. Way too hesitant. She had to act cool, and calm, and like she wasn’t about to melt into a puddle because he’d stopped stomping around and he was _looking_ at her, and his eyes were the prettiest shade of blue and a little bit wide, like he was surprised, maybe -

Shit.

What was her plan, here? She gulped. This was why she needed to think things _through_ , she didn’t actually know what to say, and he was starting to frown -

She could ask him for help, maybe. With math. She had seen that in a movie, once, and it’s not like she had time to come up with anything else -

“I, um. I’ve just been having a bit of trouble, lately, and I thought, maybe -”

“Fine.”

He cut her off before she could finish, and she tried to stop the way her heart plummeted at the scowl that was now very clear on his face. (She’d _known_ , hadn’t she, that he’d glare at her just like the rest?)

“ - what?” He’d cut her off, and he looked pissed as all hells, but he was still agreeing to help her? She blinked at him.

“This week’s assignment. I’ll do it.”

She hadn’t thought her heart could fall any further. She’d thought it was already on the ground. She was wrong.

“Oh. That’s not - I mean -”

Why didn’t her mouth work? Why couldn’t she say ‘don’t do my assignment for me, let’s do it together, and maybe you can lean in close to me and maybe you’ll smile at me eventually and maybe our knees will touch under the table and oh dear _Gods_ what is wrong with me -’

“Give me your work from today.”

“My - why?”

She really needed to get her brain working. She was still imagining them in fantasyland, she was missing what was going on in the present literally right in front of her face -

“Gotta see how you write your numbers. Can’t be obvious I did it, can it?”

Well. Okay. He might be more than willing to cheat but at least he was smart about it, so that was - good? Right?

“Right. Sure. Yes.” 

She nodded vigorously, hoping the head movement would shake the fog that seemed to have overpowered her brain, rendering her utterly useless. She reached into her bag and grabbed a couple papers, pretending she wasn’t wishing for his fingers to brush hers as she passed them to him -

(They didn’t.)

“...Thanks.”

He was already storming down the hall, and she’s pretty sure he didn’t hear. She tried to calm her racing heart and figure out what in seven hells had just happened. She hadn’t had much of a plan but she still felt like that had gone horribly awry. What good was it to her to have him do her homework?

He wasn’t even as good at math as she was.

She frowned to herself. At least she’d spoken to him. Kind of. Mostly she’d been a stuttering, idiotic fool, but she was choosing to ignore that for the time being. She’d spoken to him, and he’d _have_ to speak to her again, to give her her counterfeit assignment. 

She’d be ready, then. 

***

She wasn’t.

He’d snuck up on her, though, which she found surprising for someone so large.

“It’ll be twenty.”

She nearly leapt a foot in the air, and barely managed to hold onto the textbook she’d just grabbed from her locker. Her heart promptly restarted in her chest, and she worked on convincing herself it was the shock that had caused this physical reaction, and not the fact that he was standing awfully close and his voice was low in her ear and he smelled like mint gum -

Her stomach twisted again, though, in that way that she was pretty sure had nothing to do with being startled. She kept her eyes focused in front of her, hoping he couldn’t hear how much her heart was racing. It sounded deafening to her.

Eventually, though, she remembered -

What was he saying?

She brought her gaze to his, then, and -

Really, where did he get off, looking like that? He was leaning against her locker in his _stupid_ jacket, and his _stupid_ face was scrunched up in a frown like she had somehow offended him when she was just minding her own business -

“Twenty dollars. That’s my rate.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. She ignored the way this made them look. Really. (Only it must have taken too long, for her to start ignoring him, because he seemed to have given up on having her respond - )

“Look, if it’s a problem -”

“It’s not. It’s no problem.” 

She’d blurted it out before she could think better of it, because the way his voice was somehow getting _lower_ was doing things to her that she found entirely inappropriate given that they were in the crowded hall and she just needed it to stop _right now_ -

She fished a bill out of her bag and handed it to him. He shoved a few papers into her hand, and was storming away from her before she could think of some way to salvage this because she’d promised herself she’d do _better_ this time -

“...You’re welcome.”

Gods, he had awful manners. And now she was out twenty bucks for an assignment she could have easily done herself, probably with better results -

Something warm rushed through her, though, as she eyed the papers he’d handed to her. Seeing her name up in the corner, written by him, and so close to her own penmanship she could have done it herself -

Well, she never would have thought that _that_ would have done it for her. She shook her head to herself. This was exactly why she always ignored boys. She knew they could make girls act like complete loons. She’d just only ever witnessed it, before.

She decided that experiencing it was immeasurably worse.

***

As the week progressed, though, Arya found herself looking on her situation a little more brightly. Yes, both of her attempts to speak to Gendry Waters had been, without a shadow of a doubt, complete failures.

However.

That wasn’t to say that they couldn’t grow from here. Everyone had to start somewhere, didn’t they? And she had started, she’d gotten the ball rolling, so to speak, and soon enough, she was sure -

Her breath caught as she turned the corner of the hallway and there he was, clear as day, leaning against Margaery Tyrell’s locker as she shot him a beautiful smile and touched his arm and -

Okay, he seemed as unenthused as ever, but seeing the subtle move as he slipped her twenty into his pocket deflated Arya all the same.

She tried not to let it bother her.

But she saw him _again_ , the very next day, doing the exact same thing with Lommy Greenhands, of all people -

Lommy wasn’t even _taking_ calculus.

Just what did Gendry Waters think he was doing?

Arya fumed the whole way home, trying to make sense of why she felt that Gendry should only be doing _her_ homework (when she didn’t even need him to and had never actually asked him to and he barely even knew her, anyway.) As ridiculous as it was, she still felt… mildly betrayed.

Now she couldn’t even _pretend_ that it was some special little thing, and it was all his fault.

What a prick.

***

“Got your twenty?”

“Excuse me?”

For once, he was speaking to her and her brain didn’t feel like it was filled with fog. Her response came out snappy, almost, but she certainly didn’t feel bad. Not when _he_ was always being so rude, and besides -

He had wronged her. With that whole, doing other people's homework too, thing.

Gendry held out a handful of papers to her, and she blinked down at them. Oh. So he thought they were going to carry on with this, then.

Well, if that was what he thought, he had another thing coming.

“I didn’t ask you to do it.”

She shut her locker more forcefully than was strictly necessary, and turned to storm off in a huff. (She didn’t get far, though, because she didn’t actually want to leave, somehow she was still rooted to the spot, and when she did finally move it was only to turn _back_ to him -)

His face was scrunched up, almost in his signature frown -

This seemed even more pained than usual, though. His lips were parted, slightly, and she wished she didn’t notice anything about his stupid lips at all. (Mostly, she wished that she didn’t notice that his eyes were boring into hers, and something about the way he was looking at her _did_ make her start to feel bad, a little -) 

“Right. Yeah.”

He seemed to have come to some conclusion, because his gaze hardened and his jaw tightened and he nodded at her, and pulled the papers back -

She snatched them from him anyway, because despite being mad at him she desperately wanted another piece of paper where he’d written her name at the top, because she was completely and utterly unhinged -

And after that -

Well, after that he _definitely_ looked confused. He looked cute confused, she decided, before remembering that that type of thought was completely unproductive. She huffed to herself, before fishing out another twenty to give to him. She shoved it into his hand, and this time her fingers _did_ brush his -

If she wasn’t a firm disbeliever in this type of thing, she might have considered that she felt as though touching him was a bit like being electrocuted.

She had to get out of there immediately, before she started reconsidering whether things like that _could_ actually happen.

“So - next week?”

He was rubbing the back of his neck, and his eyes seemed to be extremely focused on the floor -

“Yeah.”

Shit.

She should regret it, honestly, because it was a complete waste of money and also pointless, but she didn’t. (Because it was worth it, when his eyes snapped back up to hers, and he looked, for a second, like he might smile. 

He didn’t. 

But, like, he almost could have.)

***

She knew it wasn’t anything special. He did it for tons of people. For all subjects, it seemed. Well, good for him. She wasn’t one to fault anyone for showing a little hustle.

Plus, it reaffirmed that he _was_ smart.

She liked that.

Not that it mattered, because she didn’t mean anything to him. But still.

(She looked forward to it, though, and tried to pretend that that wasn't pathetic. She liked knowing she'd have an excuse to talk to him in the hall. And sometimes when he looked at her she thought he might not actually hate her all that much, but -

Well, again, that wasn't really anything to write home about.)

***

Arya had felt that she could have carried on in the same vein for…

Well, for the rest of the year.

She could have kept paying Gendry Waters twenty dollars to do her calculus assignment that she could very well have done herself, and those little transactions could have been their only interactions, and then eventually the year could have ended and he could have graduated and she never would have seen him again -

And, really, that would have been fine.

She shouldn’t have been all that surprised when Sansa ruined everything for her.

***

“What is this?”

Arya nearly jumped again. When had it become so easy to sneak up on her? She had just slipped Gendry another twenty, and had been contemplating also slipping in some vague, random question, like what was his favourite sport to watch on tv -

Sansa had her arms crossed, and a disapproving look on her face, and she really resembled their mother an uncomfortable amount. Arya felt a rush of dread overcome her. Why couldn’t Sansa leave her alone? Mind her own business?

“It’s nothing, Sansa.”

She grit her teeth and tried to sound menacing. She didn’t need the third degree, here, she had no interest in talking about this -

Sansa merely raised an eyebrow and somehow crossed her arms even harder. She clearly wasn’t going anywhere without a little more information. Arya mentally cursed her to the deepest of the seventh hells, because here she was again, just trying to ruin everything for her for no reason -

“Gendry’s just - he’s helping me with my calc assignments.”

Arya couldn’t stop the heat from flooding her face. She looked at Sansa, pleading, because Sansa would _know_ she didn’t need help with calculus, but couldn’t she just -

“You’re getting _him_ to help you? With _math_?”

Of course she couldn’t ‘just’. Gendry, who had been watching the exchange with narrowed eyes but what could have almost been described as mild interest, before, seemed to have heard enough. He exhaled sharply through his nose, shot a not-too-friendly look at Sansa, and strode off, hands shoved into his pockets.

“Shut up.”

Arya watched Gendry round the corner, feeling herself almost physically deflate as she did so. She suddenly felt utterly exhausted. What was she doing? Why did she even bother? She decided that she _hated_ boys, actually, because she’d never had to deal with any of this bullshit before. Her life was so much more peaceful in the pre-Gendry Waters days.

“ _Arya_. Nobody is better at math than you. What’re you -”

She glared at Sansa. Her face still felt like it was on fire, and honestly, it made sense, because suddenly she felt more embarrassed by this whole thing than she ever had before. It was fine, when no one knew. It was just for her, and nobody needed to know how stupid she was -

“Oh.”

Sansa’s perfectly sculpted eyebrows were both raised, now, and her crystal blue eyes were wide, and Arya was _sure_ she hadn’t mistaken the notes of pity in that ‘oh’ -

She almost felt like crying. Her throat felt a bit tight, and her chest was constricted, and she wished, more than anything, that nobody knew about this -

She stormed away from Sansa, determined not to look back. She wouldn’t let her sister see how upset she was, not more than she already had, she would pull it together, she -

She ran right into Gendry Waters, who had planted himself in the middle of the hall stock still as if he wasn’t some giant obstacle -

Something in her brain registered that, at any other time, she likely would have been ecstatic to find herself in this situation. Gendry’s arms had gripped her elbows to steady her (she’d really crashed into him with an excessive amount of force), and her chest was pressed against his and her heart was racing and he smelled really good and -

She wondered what business he had, looking so completely shocked that somebody had run into him. His eyes were wider than she’d ever seen them, and he looked like he couldn’t speak -

Oh. Oh, no.

Had he heard them? Had he heard _Sansa_? Did he know, now, too? Panic gripped her. She should make up some excuse, say that she _could_ have done it all herself, she just didn’t want to, she had money and she was lazy, she’d rather pay someone than do anything herself. People did shit like that, right?

But he -

If he hadn’t heard… Then she would _really_ be giving herself away. He hadn’t said anything, so there was no way to know. All she did know was that his hands were still on her, and her pulse was racing, and she had to get out of there before she humiliated herself any further as her daily capacity had already been exceeded -

She tried to push him away, but somehow only succeeded in propelling herself backwards. He really was very sturdy. She tried not to think about how appealing that was. She had much more pressing matters to attend to, like fleeing the scene.

So she did.

***

She couldn’t wait to get home. She nearly ran out the front door, more than ready to put this whole mess of a day behind her -

“Arya.”

Godsdamnit.

She had just fled from him not two hours ago. Had she not been through enough today? Was he really going to make her flee _again_?

(She ignored the fact that her name sounded so good coming out of his mouth, and she ignored the way he was leaning against the wall, and she especially ignored the way he seemed like he must have been waiting for her -)

She’d never been good at ignoring anything, though, and that seemed especially true right now, because against her will she’d stopped in her tracks. 

She just looked at him, and he just looked at her, and her heart thundered along in her chest like a godsdamned elephant. She wasn’t much for religion, usually, but she found herself praying to the old gods, praying to the seven, praying to the stupid lord of light, even, that he hadn’t heard -

“Do you really not need help with math?”

Fuck all the gods, honestly. What good were they? She wished the ground would swallow her up. She could kill Sansa. Could she have announced that any louder? How was she supposed to get out of this?

Arya chewed her lip and shrugged. She could go with her earlier story, she supposed, even though the thought of Gendry thinking she was a rich spoiled brat didn’t exactly make her feel great, it had to be better than _this_ -

“Not really.”

She held her breath. Maybe he would just let it go, and she could carry on with her life, and -

“Arya, you’ve given me like two hundred bucks.”

She wished he would stop saying her name. It was making it appallingly difficult to think straight. She just shrugged again. There was nothing for it, she supposed. She’d have to go with her only story. She certainly didn’t have enough brain power left after all of his ‘Arya’s’ to come up with anything else.

“Yeah, listen. I just -”

“D’you wanna grab a pizza?”

The words died in her throat. She gaped at him momentarily, at the way he was rubbing the back of his neck again, and giving her that pained look, the one that was different from his usual scowl -

“ - what? Now?”

She had to have misheard him. She must have been briefly transported to another dimension. Of course Gendry Waters didn’t want to have pizza with her. Gendry Waters hated her, and everyone else.

“Yeah. I mean unless you’re - busy, obviously -”

She might be suffocating. His eyes had dropped to the ground, and the tips of his ears were red, and -

Was he nervous right now? Did he actually think for the slightest second that she wouldn’t be interested? Her eyebrows felt as though they were about to fly off of her face; they were raised so high. 

“No, I - yeah. Pizza would be good.”

“Yeah?”

And then he smiled at her, and -

It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

Gods, she was a complete and total mess. (But at least now she was a mess who was going to get a pizza with _Gendry_ so -

Things could be worse.)

***

Arya thought pizza had never tasted so good, before registering how disgustingly cheesy that thought was and permanently erasing it from the record. The pizza was fine. No better or worse than usual. Really.

She was finding it hard to stop grinning, though, which she was sure was purely coincidental.

***

Once Gendry had smiled at her the one time, outside the school, rendering her speechless, he seemed much less reluctant to do it again. She wasn’t sure if she would ever get properly used to it. She wasn’t sure if she’d get used to the feelings in her stomach either, or the way his arm felt around her shoulders as he walked her home, or the way his lips -

(Okay, yes, he kissed her. And she’s _really_ not sure what a nerd like him is doing kissing like that, but she’s sure she doesn’t mind.)

***

She was smiling like a buffoon when she bid him goodnight. Nothing could ruin her mood, or this day, because -

“Arya Stark. Who was that boy?”

She may have spoken too soon. She looked up into her mother’s disapproving face - how did her and Sansa perfect this look in such a remarkably similar fashion? Her mother was in the foyer, along with her father, who looked somewhat pained, and Jon and Robb, who were clearly horrified, and Rickon, who looked positively gleeful -

What in seven hells were they all doing here? 

She flushed as she remembered (not that it had been far from her mind) the kisses her and Gendry had shared on the doorstep. They hadn’t been all that short, really -

Had her family been _spying_? Her heart rate increased. Gods, they could be incorrigible.

“That’s Gendry. He’s -”

She stuttered momentarily. What exactly was she supposed to say, here? ‘He’s a really nice guy’? That certainly wasn’t true. She was beyond convinced that his manners would send her mother into an apoplectic fit. ‘He’s a really good kisser’? That wouldn’t do either. Nobody in her present company was going to be happy to hear that. But she had to say _something_ -

“- really good at math!”

Rickon shrieked with laughter, and Arya took this momentary distraction to bolt up the stairs. She could hear voices calling after her, Rickon saying that she was the biggest dork, and her mother shrilly saying that this conversation was _not_ over -

She didn’t care.

She flopped down onto her bed, hands covering her face, as if that would help the gigantic smile she couldn’t get rid of.

(It didn’t.)

She supposed, paying attention to _some_ boys could be alright. If you picked the right one, and they picked you back, and -

How had she gotten so lucky on her very first try?

Maybe she’d apologize to some of those gods, after all. 


End file.
